CHAPTER 67: GODSPEED CULTIVATION

[Mage Rank: Beginner 0/250]

[Knight Rank: Expert 150420/250000]

[HP: 452582]

Stats

[STR: 7481]

[AGI: 2431]

[DEF: 5580]

[VIT: 86106]

[STA: 85105]

[INT: 8390]

Primordial Energy: 450

Skill Points: 100100

Innate Skill: Ancestral Weapon Ascension

Comprehensions: Sword Will

Skills: 100x SP Multiplier, Perfect Stealth, Inventory, Divine Sword Art, Critical Expose, Gravion Control, Frostfang Javelin, P.E Recovery, Solar Purge, Omnilingua, Instant Assimiliation, 100x XP Multiplier, Totem Bastion, Energy Bolts, Seismic Clutch, Abyssal Fracture, Phantom Cloning,1000% Drop Rate, Mythic Pyrolash, Sovereign Lance, AP Multiplier

After checking the numbers, Darien noticed the gain wasn’t evenly distributed.

But he was impressed. At this rate, his health would peak within a week, something that would’ve taken much longer otherwise.

The rate also multiplied whilst he was in active combat, so he didn’t always have to remain passive.

Just a day after learning the fusion of basic elemental skills, Darien had created something that made him more of a threat!

He liked the power crawling through his veins and couldn’t wait to see how far his new skill would carry him.

Yet, despite all that, the boy still didn’t feel complete.

As an Ascended warrior, he had every reason to.

On a spiritual level, he was a poor aspirant. His soul lagged behind, unfed and untempered, while his body and mind were being refined.

Darien knew he couldn’t neglect it any longer.

His Energy capacity was still limited, and even his absorption scale remained stunted.

The Forsaken Magus’s life core was a Reactive core. If he had tried absorbing it, he would’ve been killed even though it was Neutral.

At the top of the list he had penned down, Darien’s foremost goal was to forge his own spirit.

The formation of an energy core was the very first exercise taught to every magi student in the academy.

Rigorous traditional steps, cultivation, long hours of study, and complex flow practices were required before a student could successfully form one.

And everything was always under the careful guidance of their tutors.

Across the world, this was regarded as the only legitimate way to awaken the inner spirit, which meant Darien might be incapable of accomplishing his alone.

So he created a new skill, something to bridge what others called impossible.

With it, he was confident he could succeed. He might, in fact, sift through everything and form his spirit within a single day.

[Skill frame established]

[Name: 10x Godspeed Cultivation Rate]

[Type: Passive / Special]

[Level: (2-star)]

[Description: A passive skill that hastens the user’s cultivation progress by tenfold. All growth, experience, enlightenment, and energy refinement accelerate.]

[Cost: 10,250 SP]

[Are you sure you want to spend 10,250 Skill Points to create the skill: 10x Godspeed Cultivation Rate ???]

"YES."

[You have acquired a new skill: 10x Godspeed Cultivation Rate]

’2-star?’ Darien thought.

The skill was this broken, yet it was only 2-star? He couldn’t believe it.

In a world where leveling up was the norm, cultivation was just as crucial, especially at the early stages of ascension and the later stages of mastery.

Many high-ranked warriors no longer bothered to fight; instead, they cultivated endlessly, drawing enlightenment and experience points from the stillness of power rather than the chaos of battle.

Darien guessed this was how the people in power stayed in power: by simply not adventuring anymore or risking their lives in cursed zones like everyone else.

With this new skill that accelerated his cultivation, Darien was determined to master every art of power known to man... or beyond.

He was also going to forge his own energy core to stop existing as a spiritless vessel.

Opening the windows to let the calm air sweep through the thin curtains, the boy shuffled to the center of his inn room and sat cross-legged, trying to steady his breath.

He didn’t need to be told that procedures like this demanded focus, stillness, and deep meditation.

After an hour of trying, he felt like he had made no progress at all.

10x Godspeed Cultivation Rate helped him absorb ten units of energy per cycle instead of one.

Darien could feel himself draining the mana in the room, drawing it into a spiraling current of Primordial Energy with his soul.

But yet, he didn’t make any tangible progress.

The Energy he coerced seemed to dissolve into nothingness, vanishing before he could attempt focusing on forming a core.

If he were doing it right, Darien expected to see a system notification by now, but instead, it felt as though he’d only been cycling energy through his body without true direction.

But Darien didn’t give up.

’Maybe more time,’ he thought.

He was patient. So he spent a few more hours meditating and focusing.

It was draining work, so he took brief pauses to eat between the sessions.

However, no matter how long he tried, every time Darien opened his eyes, nothing seemed to have changed.

Despite this, he had very remarkable patience.

He believed the delay might be part of the process, considering he had never been an ordinary human. The process needed more time.

So Darien extended his meditation into the next day, and when that yielded no result, he pushed on to the day after that, refusing to let failure discourage him.

But after the second day, his efforts remained fruitless.

’What could be the problem?’ he thought calmly, without frustration.

Darien was sure he was doing everything right.

Being cursed-born, this should’ve been extremely easier, in fact.

’Maybe it’s because I can control all elements? Surely, my own energy core and its formation can’t be normal.’

Thinking that, he quickly rose to his feet.

That had to be the exact reason he had no results.

Energy or life cores were never the same for everyone.

The more a warrior developed and perfected his affinity, the more his energy core evolved from Neutral to one that completely embodied their element, Stable to Abyssal in potency along the way.

If Darien had been cultivating like a single-affinity awakener, then he was wasting his time.

This meant he had to consult the academy’s general library again, since seeking help from a tutor was out of the question.

Forming a life core as an Omni-Magus had to be one of the rarest feats in the history of this world.

It was actually possible there wouldn’t be a single book about it in the library, given how impossibly uncommon such a condition was.

If that turned out to be the case, Darien decided he could instead rely on manuals written for dual or triple affinities.

Those methods might at least follow a similar principle, offering fragments of guidance he could piece together.

Sighing, Darien dusted himself off, still in the same attire he had worn for days.

He needed new clothes. There’d be a fresh uniform in Jakob’s room—he would make use of it.

It was already evening, but he didn’t mind.

Revealing his Rift Compass, the device shimmered with faint light before opening a portal to the most familiar place he had in memory within the academy.

Darien stepped through and appeared in his own room.

The place remained neat and untouched, filling him with brief, bittersweet memories.

He took one of his own uniforms for good measure before silently leaving the room and heading toward Jakob’s.